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Friday, May 7, 2010

Praising Arizona

By David Newhan

In order to keep this blogspot fair and balanced, I feel obligated to respond to my father’s column and give our readers “Razing Arizona part deux”--or “Praising Arizona”.

While in no way do I support racial profiling or discrimination, and I am not sure if this bill creates either, I do feel there must finally be action to solve the problems of ILLEGAL immigration.

As Gov. Brewer stated “Decades of inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation.” Years of ineptness, timidity, and spineless politics by our leaders in Washington have forced the states, particularly the border states, to accept responsibility and take action.

D.C. has shown nothing but political cowardice when it has come to resolving an issue that weighs on our nation in various forms, economically and otherwise. Although our president said the law is misguided and the measure would “undermine basic notions of fairness,” nothing constructive to remedy the malady has been done.

Arizona has decided that its LEGAL and tax paying citizens will no longer be the victims. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, as an Arizona home owner and leader of an industry that brings in millions of dollars for the state, has been criticized for failing to speak against the law, but he has the right to remain part of the silent majority that helped to bring about this bill.. Selig needs to make sure that all of his players continue to get legal working visas, which they do, so that baseball can provide one of the greatest stages for equal opportunity in the world.

Although most are not U.S. citizens, Latinos in baseball have the opportunity to work in America with a chance to live out the dream of playing baseball at the highest level and making, in many cases, exorbitant contracts. Most of that money will be spent in their own homelands, taking care of their families or themselves. Some of these players have gone through the citizenship process, and Selig should make sure that jobs created by the Diamondbacks organization, the 15 clubs that conduct spring training in Arizona and the Arizona Fall League go to legal, tax paying citizens. If one of his “players” gets asked for their immigration documents or “papers” it is no big thing. Don’t each of us carry some form of identification, be it a drivers license, I.D. or social security card?

Moreover, as a law abiding citizen, shouldn’t Selig follow the rules that the state in which he vacations has mandated? And why shouldn’t Arizona be able to protect itself? At least a half million illegal aliens penetrate the border to strain hospitals, schools, prisons, and law enforcement bodies. Should Arizona wait and follow the example of its neighboring state of California and let its healthcare and education systems border on bankruptcy? Also, Arizona has quickly become a very unsafe place to live and visit. According to 2008 Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, in Maricopa County (Phoenix area) illegal aliens represent 9% of the population while contributing to 22% of the crimes committed.

Specifically, illegal aliens are 35% of those sentenced for kidnapping, 20% of those sentenced for felony DUI, 16% of violent crimes, 18% of property crimes, 44% of forgery or fraud crime, 85% of criminal impersonation or false I.D., and 96% of human smuggling. The kidnapping problem has reached epidemic proportions. The city of Phoenix was dubbed the “kidnapping capital of the world” by ABC. There are more incidents of kidnapping than in any other city in the world outside of Mexico City. So maybe Bud, like his fellow Arizona citizens, knows that something needs to be done, which is why he has held his tongue.

Maybe if Washington D.C. was located on the border with Mexico, the politicians would take action. Maybe if they were faced with these issues daily they would resolve these same issues that plague Arizona and its neighboring states, and which are slowly leaking throughout our nation.

As I wrote earlier, I do not believe in racial profiling. I have numerous friends throughout baseball of all ethnicities. I support their ability to work and live in the U.S. They do it LEGALLY. I myself come from a Jewish background in which my great grandfather was forced to wear a yellow star to identify his “Jewishness” to the Nazis in Warsaw, Poland. What Arizona has proposed is not the same. The Jewish people were persecuted by an insane Hitler. They were innocent people living and working and striving for the freedom to worship their God. On the other hand, illegal aliens are in our country…well, ILLEGALLY. They are breaking the LAW! There are consequences for that. If the only way to detain these people is by giving our law enforcement the ability to ask for their government papers, then I am all for it.

These people are not off to the concentration camps or the ovens; they are going back to their country with the ability to still immigrate to this wonderful country in a legal manner. Thus, Bud and baseball must stand by the law and support what the vast majority of Arizonans mandate. It is time to take the strain off of our schools, hospitals, prisons and law enforcement officials. It is time to make Phoenix a safer place, free of human smuggling and kidnapping by dangerous drug cartels. Let us sit back, like Bud, and watch as Arizona leads this nation against the epidemic of illegal immigration.

About Me

Ross Newhan has covered baseball in Southern California for over 50 years. He was the first national baseball columnist at the Los Angeles Times, and has written several baseball books. He was elected to the writer's wing of the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2000. His son David Newhan is a graduate of Pepperdine University, has played parts of eight seasons in the major leagues and lives in San Diego County with his wife and two children. David currently is coaching with the Padres Lake Elsinore Storm. Newhan's daughter Sara is a Special Ed teacher. Newhan and wife live in Southern California where the Angels, Dodgers and Padres are all an easy drive.